BHUBANESWAR: The Motor Vehicles Amendment Act 2019 has caught vehicular pollution checking system napping in the State Capital. As the amended Act, with stiff penalty, has sent vehicle owners on a mad scramble, most pollution test centres are unable to produce valid pollution under control (PUC) certificates after failing to register online.
Of the 51 PUC centres under the jurisdiction of two Regional Transport Offices (RTOs) of the City, just 19 have managed online registration with the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) by August 31, which was the cut-off date. There are 21 static and portable authorised PUC centres under RTO-I while RTO-II has 30 such units.
Before the amended Act came into effect on September 1, State Transport Authority (STA) had categorically asked RTOs to direct the authorised PUC test centres to register themselves with Parivahan Sewa under MoRTH but in vain.
Their inability to register online has meant that there is a huge rush at the PUC centres with auto-rickshaws queuing up ahead of others. Denizens who had not got fresh pollution certificates for their vehicles are facing severe inconvenience too.
A day after an auto-rickshaw driver was slapped `47,500 by the RTO-I for eight traffic violations, including `10,000 for violating air and noise pollution norms, people are frantically looking to locate PUC test centre but to no avail.
“I looked for a PUC test centre between Raj Bhavan and Patia but could not find any single facility. Finally, there was one near RTO-II office,” said, Anup. Auto-rickshaw owners were found waiting for hours at one functional PUC centre but a technical glitch left everyone in the lurch.
“Only seven PUC centres registered themselves with Parivahan Sewa. However, 14 others are yet to get registration. Any certificate they issue before completing the registration will be outrightly considered invalid,” RTO-I in-charge PK Mohanty said. The remaining centres have been asked complete the registration process at the earliest. Similarly, only 12 PUC centres under RTO-II have registered themselves with Parivahan Sewa so far.
According to the procedure, new/old PUC centres have to register themselves with Parivahan Sewa online by submitting the required document online and create user name and password on the website.
The RTOs also get the information once the centres register themselves with Parivahan Sewa. Sources said the State Transport Authority had earlier also asked the RTOs to direct the PUC centres to register themselves with the Central Government. Currently, the test centres charge `80 to provide PUC certificate to a two-wheeler with a six month validity, `100 is charged for for auto-rickshaws and four-wheelers. For heavy vehicles, it is `150.